Environment & Climate Change

Projects and Initiatives

The National Adaptation Plan (NAP) process was established under the Cancun Adaptation Framework to promote political and financial support at the national level for countries to mainstream climate change into development planning. At the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP-17) in Durban, Parties adopted initial guidelines and principles for the NAP process. In addition, relevant organizations were requested to submit information on their support of the NAP process and to consider the establishment of NAP support programmes according to their respective mandates.

Climate change – including rising temperatures and an increased frequency of droughts and extreme rain events – is negatively affecting local communities living in rural parts of Zambia. Miombo woodlands provide a range of benefits that increase the resilience of these communities to climate change. Such benefits include regulating and provisioning services. However, miombo woodlands are being degraded as a result of unsustainable land management and exploitation of natural resources. This degradation is exacerbated by the aforementioned effects of climate change. Such effects reduce the capacity of these woodlands to protect vulnerable communities from the increasingly negative impacts of climate change that are threatening their livelihoods.

The project emanates from the National Adaptation Plan of Action which highlights the vulnerability of Zambian farmers to the effects of climate hazards, such as, drought, flooding, extreme temperatures and prolonged dry spells. The project aims to mainstream adaptation measures into planning at all levels and test adaptation interventions, such as, water management (water harvesting) to protect and improve agricultural incomes from the effects of climate change.

The project strengthens the enabling frameworks and capacities for managing the National Protected Areas system in Zambia and recommends appropriate policy, regulatory and governance frameworks in order to provide new tools for public-private-community-civil society management partnerships.

The aims of the Low Emission Capacity Building (LECB) Project are to develop the capacities (institutional, financial, human, research) required for articulation of a low carbon, climate resilient development pathway.

To ensure that the biodiversity and carbon sinks of Zambia – particularly those critical forest landscapes in selected protected areas (including core National Parks and buffer Game Management Areas) – are better protected from threats through improved management effectiveness at the institutional level; sustainable forestry management practices and integrated land use planning at the local level; and application of appropriate low-carbon, biomass- energy technologies.

UN-REDD Programme – Zambia Quick Start Initiative aims to prepare Zambian institutions and stakeholders for effective nationwide implementation of the REDD+ mechanism. The NJP is facilitated by the Forestry Department within the Ministry of Mines and Natural Resources.

As part of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), and within the context of delivering as “One UN”, the United Nations in Zambia developed the Joint Programme on Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction (CCDRR), whose objective is to improve institutional and individual capacities at national and local levels for an effective multi-sectoral and multi-level response to climate change.

OUR WORK - ENVIRONMENT & ENERGY

Fostering sustainable development and reducing people’s vulnerability from the risk of climate change, natural and man-made disasters and environmental degradation are key pillars under the framework of UNDP Zambia’s Country Programme Action Plan 2011 – 2015 and the Sixth National Development Plan Vision for the Natural Resources Sector.